Lily Potter
by lala-swish
Summary: Lily lost her parents when she was young, now her life is desolate. She's lonely and one of the only people who has no prejudice against magic.
1. Chapter 1

Lily Potter thought about her life, whilst sitting on a bed in a muggle household. She was seventeen with bright green eyes and ginger hair. Apart from early ridicule for being very ginger and therefore very freckly, she had grown into her beauty a few years ago and no more bullies appeared, but their scars had been left on her mind. She regretted that comment and the one which would undoubtedly come next: you are such a teenage cliché, you should change now, before it's too late. She looked at her height, she was taller than an average girl but not too tall, her tallness highlighted her skinny frame, turning her into what she thought looked like an alien. The genetic inheritance and a few memories which flashed through her mind every now and then were the only reminders of her past. Her foster parents were an elderly couple, called Joseph and Barbara, a pair of lovely strangers, who had never harmed Lily. These strangers filled a part of the hole left by her genetic parents and Lily would not have survived longer than this without them, that she was sure of.

She re-thought how that sounded. She loved her parents; it wasn't their fault they died when she was little. She had been told by her foster parents that they had died at the hand of a malevolent man along with her brothers and other family members. Lily knew that she had lost more than just her parents that day, but her Joseph and Barbara had only known of her parents and brothers. Lily had only escaped because she had been left in another room by her mother. She remembered parts of the day well, others not so well.

_'Mummy!' Lily cried. _

_'Yes darling?' Ginny Weasley's red hair matched her daughters. _

_'Can I show you my painting? It's of me, you, Daddy, Albie and James.'_

_'Of course.' Ginny saw her only daughter's painting, it was good for a four year old. 'Well done sweetie, shall we show daddy?'_

_'Please Mummy.'_

_They walked hand in hand into the garden of their home._

_'Daddy!' Lily cried in the same manner as she called her mother. _

_'Hey Lily.' Harry picked up his daughter in a hug. 'What's that in your hands?' _

_'It's everyone.' Lily smiled at her father. _

_Suddenly there was a banging at the door. Ginny whispered a few words into her daughter's ears before following Harry into the house to get the door. Those last few words still haunted Lily:_

_'Lily if Mummy doesn't return in ten seconds, run as fast as you can, try to get to Albie and James.'_

Lily still didn't know to this day, why her mother had gone into the house rather than run with her daughter. The man who took away her family went by the name of Sinistrum, her basic knowledge of latin told her it meant sinister, evil. She had never met this man, or she hadn't realised if she had. She also hated this man, unsurprisingly her thoughts turned to vitriol everytime she thought of him. She knew that if she ever came face to face with him knowingly she would not keep in her anger, but she also knew that she would have no chance. There was one thing that she did think the magic community was at fault for, but it was something that the muggle community also had fault for. The criminals in their community were, of course, killing innocent muggles, so what were they doing to try and prevent murder? Sinistrum was still a large name about now, he was the main cause of all the trouble, the rest were lesser wizards copying him. She knew that muggles had problems with some of their worse criminals as well, it took them 5 years to catch Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire ripper. But Sinistrum had been running around killing people for thirteen years now and Lily thought that this was a particularly long time for a criminal not to be caught, especially a serial killer.

Lily thought some more about magic, she often did, it was the main theme for unhappiness in her life and it involved her parents. Lily had been thirteen when magic was world-widely announced and the media which followed. She hated the way people discriminated against witches and wizards, many magic folk had been killed or maimed after the announcement, Lily had cried every night she heard of a new death, but she stopped now, the murders had increased, but less and less were of real witches and wizards. The whole country of England had reverted back to James I, where every woman was scrutinised. The witches and wizards had become clever, hiding in homes, pretending to be muggles, using codes and fitting in. The media had become vicious in their newsprint when a body of a muggle had been found to have been killed by magic. Of course, Lily had recognised that like muggles there were both good and bad wizards and witches.

Her foster parents were some of the leading figures in the fight against magic, but Lily secretly wrote letters to newspapers demanding that they see magic in a new light. It was an impossible effort to begin to try and make people see sense. The more they fought against magic, the worse the repercussions would be. One of Lily's letter to the Daily Mail was particularly harsh, this being the only reason they published it. That and to make a mockery of it.

_Dear Readers, _

_What is wrong with magic? I already guess that in the first sentence you have judged me to be ignorant and ridulously empathic to witches and wizards. But have you looked at your opinions, your thoughts on this misunderstood group of people? _

_You say that magic is dangerous. So are muggles. How many magical people and creatures have been killed because of muggles? Yes, I will use the term muggle, because that is what you are being. You are infact the ignorant and dangerous beings. _

_At this moment you would probably like to inform me of the amount of muggles that magic has killed. There are two things wrong with what you are saying. Firstly, like muggles, magical folk have the good and bad in their community. It is not and I repeat not the whole of the wizarding communities' fault that some of their population is evil. It proves my point further that we are not different to them. We are the same genus, we are the same creatures. The only exception is that one group of people have an extra gene or quality to them. _

_I don't think that the 'magic is dangerous' debate is what fuels most of this hatred either. I think that many of you petty people are either jealous that they have something we don't or you don't want to believe that your precious science cannot explain everything. _

_I shall take the last paragraph of this letter of complaint to explain my background life and why you should take my opinion seriously. My parents were murdered when I was young. By muggles? No. By an evil wizard. You may know him, his name is Sinistrum. But I harbour no ill towards the wizarding community. This is why you should listen to my opinion, because I have seen and I know the consequences of magic. Secondly, I study science and I love it. It is amazingly interesting and I wouldn't give it up for the world. But no one can just wipe magic off the face of the Earth and ignore it. It exists. This is a great opportunity for scientists worldwide to figure out what the difference is? I am excited because of the knowledge that magic exists. And so should you. _

Lily remembered the ridicule her letter got. Beside her letter the paper wrote a passage about how badly written it is and that a child must have sent it in. But Lily didn't care, the main thing was that it had been published and any from the wizarding community would have realised that there are people out there who are on their side and who are muggles.

Lily had finished thinking about magic for the night. She thought to herself about how she wouldn't have to think about it for much longer, she was going to her parents as soon as she could build her nerves to commit the act. Lily was not a happy go-lucky teenager like many of the people at her school were. She was forced to keep to herself because no one would come near her for fear of being mistaken for a witch or a wizard. Joseph and Barbara were all she had at the moment and she loved them. But being the head of the anti-magic movement meant that people avoided Lily like the plague. She eventually grew to be suspicious of people because when she was younger she was ridiculed for her ginger hair and freckles, the freckles had gone now and the ginger hair was more of a beautiful auburn, but the hurt from malicious laughter at a young age was a big scar across Lily's brain. Lily's natural intelliegence proved to be another problem, her classmates consistently harassed her for being a 'swot' as they put it. She had done well in her GCSEs, 12 A*s, her foster parents had been pleased and Lily faked pleasure. But collecting her results from school had been horrible, Lily knew what she had gotten, this slip of paper only confirmed them. But the people who were near her jeered at her, with questions of her grades fired at her. She whispered her grades and they laughed at her, saying she was such an emo cliché.

Lily knew there was only one way out of the spiralling path of misery. She had become too depressed about her parents to carry on in the hope that everything would get better. Tomorrow she would be catching up with her long gone family.


	2. Falling

Chapter 2. Falling

Her eyes opened to the reality of her last day on Earth, if her day went according to plan. She had carefully planned everything, she had written her letter which she would leave on the table, she had made sure that her foster parents were out and she was ready to go. Her ingenious plan made her smile when she thought about certain details of it that would hopefully help the wizarding community for a month or so.

Her letter which she wrote earlier in the morning was short and concise.

_Dearest Joseph and Barbara,_

_You have been the most kindest and warm people in my life. You opened your hearts and let me in, I slowly became a family member and we were happy. However I was very unhappy at school and in public, people avoid me, people jeer at me, ridicule me. For these reasons I am leaving, it's not your faults, without you I wouldn't have stayed as long as I could. I will miss you, but try not to miss me, because it will only hurt you more. _

_I have taken all of my money, so you won't be able to trace me. _

_Forget me. _

_Thank You _

_Lily_

Lily wrote this letter in hope that they would read it and believe that she ran away. They would search endlessly for the girl they had looked after for nearly twelve years. This would calm down the hunt on the wizarding community for a while, because the two main leaders would be out searching for their child. It was the only thing that she could give to them now, because now that she was leaving forever, they'd have even less sympathisers.

Joseph and Barbara were out today doing speeches and rallies about how bad magic was. Lily couldn't have picked a better day to do her last act. She was alone, the sun was out: she wouldn't be noticeable, a teenager outside on a nice day. Many of the population of her town were out with her foster parents, so less people to see where she was going.

The weather outside was warm, the sun was glaring through the sunglasses, which she wore to hide her face: there was no need to look conspicuous now, it would only draw unnecessary and unwanted attention to her. She made it to her destination, the local park.

She had chosen her grave wisely. The local park backed onto the woods, the woods were a vast maze of trees and greenery, with hidden pools of stagnant water and large pits of mud where getting in was the easy part, it was the getting out. It had always been a beautiful place to Lily and she was happy that her grave also happened to be one of her favourite places. No one went far into the woods, so whenever Lily was feeling the need to be far away from everyone, she'd come into the woods and sit down deep inside the labyrinth of trees. She found her final resting place, a pool of mud which she guessed to be rather deep. The pool was covered by many trees, so it went unnoticeable to anyone, even if search parties came out here looking for her.

She sat beside the mud, giving herself a minute or so to calm her nerves. She pulled up the faces of everyone she loved, her foster parents still etched in her mind; at them she felt a small twinge of guilt, regret. But she realised that the remaining faces were waiting for her and on this thought she almost jumped into the pool.

Sliding through the mud, she felt herself become more and more relaxed. She was up to her shoulders now and she smiled in anticipation, she could almost hear her lost family calling to her, beckoning her. The mud slid over her head, it oozed into her mouth, her nose. She felt it slipping down into her lungs and the soft blackness of death enclosed her body.

* * *

Before passing out Lily heard shouts, suddenly the mud around her disappeared and she was left in a ten foot deep hole. She heard someone say clearly: 'Wingardium Leviosa'. She had no idea what that meant, but she was suddenly lifted up by nothing and placed outside the hole, which she attempted her death. She saw a tall dark haired, blue eyed boy with pale skin like herself. He spoke quickly:

'What do you think you were doing? You were going to die!' He accused in shock.

Lily had to laugh at that commment. 'Why else would I have done, unless I wanted to die?'

'But nothing in this life is worse than death. I am guessing you are a muggle, because if you were like me, you'd have hexed me and you'd be carrying on with what you are doing right now.'

'Yes and no. I happen to be a muggle, but I probably wouldn't've tried to harm you if you'd stop me. I'd have just waited until you left.'

'My name is Ollie. I am glad I saved you, even though you're a muggle.'

'I'm Lily. A pleasure.' Lily glared at him. 'I don't appreciate your prejudices, I don't mind if you are magical or not. It doesn't bother me and before you ask, I am not going to rat you out. Especially as you helped me figure out something.'

'What would that be then?' He looked at me, obviously very confused about the conversation.

' I will run away from my foster parents, give my life a second chance.' She explained.

'You're extremely cheery you know. Hey! Aren't you afraid or angry at me? Most of you lot hate our lot.'

'Like I said stupid muggle prejudices. I hate them as much as you. Part of my decision to give myself a second chance would mean writing more of my angry letters, even if they are ridiculed.' She laughed again.

He stared at Lily with a look of recognition and awe.

'You're the muggle who's not against magic, a magic-sympathiser!' He stated.

'That would be me. But how can you possibly know who I am? You have your own newspaper don't you?'

'The Daily Prophet publishes every letter you post to any newspaper. Don't ask me how they know, but I think they post them to boost our morales: 'at least there are some who like us'. Can I ask something?'

'Shoot.'

'Do you really believe what you say? Do you like us wizards?'

'Of course.'


	3. Magical Men

Lily and Ollie spent a few hours talking about their lives and how they wanted everyone to get along. For Lily it was refreshing to have someone agree with her about the whole void between magic and muggles. For Ollie it was interesting to know about how muggles coped without magic.

'So your "coming of age" is seventeen?' Lily asked

'Yes, why isn't yours?' He replied confused.

'No, ours is eighteen. That's when we are legally classed as adults.'

'That's weird. Doesn't apply to me though. I'm eighteen now you see, have been for two months now. What about you?'

'Seventeen. But I am eighteen in a month's time.'

'You know, you muggles are confusing, you do everything backward, or the long way.'

Lily laughed. 'Or maybe it's you that does everything backward.' She took a quick moment to think of the irony of her situation. The first person who was anything like a friend to her and he happened to be a wizard. She thought it was nice to be able to have someone who you could call almost a friend. Lily had never had that before, she realised that she'd missed out on that frontier. She gave herself a mental note to be more friendly in her next life.

'You and your magic prejudices.' He laughed. He liked this Lily, she was normal, she could have even been magic if he hadn't have known otherwise. From a small few hours of talking, he felt like he'd known her for years. He dismissed the thought immediately, because he would have remembered the ginger hair.

'You and your muggles assumptions, you should be saying.' She smiled. 'See if everyone could see that a muggle and a wizard could get along there would be no need for all the vicious attacks.'

'Old people don't listen to the wisdom of youth.'

'True.'

The laughing had gone and silence took over for a minute. Until Ollie's question broke it.

'Can I show you to my parents?'

'Uh, why?' Lily was a little unnerved by the question, she would like to, but she knew that not all wizards are like Ollie, some really didn't like muggles.

'Because you're the muggle who has no prejudices against the wizarding community, you're the girl whose letters are in the Daily Prophet. Please come.' He begged.

'Sure.' Lily felt uncomfortable, but she couldn't deny his face.

'I'll show you how wizards travel.' He smirked at her, 'Accio broom.' He flicked his wand, the broom flew into his hand.

'Words cannot describe how cool that was.' She looked in awe at him, she felt no jealousy, because it was the same with people who did better than her at drawing or playing the piano, they were just talented at that, she was talented in different things.

'Climb on.' He said getting on the broom himself. 'You might want to hold onto me, because you might fall off.'

Lily felt his quiet laughter shake the broom and she hit him on the head. But she did wonder how she couldn't fall off the broom.

The broom ride was exhilarating, Lily had never had an experience quite like it. She automatically loved it, the breeze of fresh air through her hair and clothes, the fast moving of the broom. She felt like she could just do this everyday. Instinctively, she let go of Ollie and held onto the back of the broom instead, that still didn't feel right but it was better than holding onto Ollie. All too quickly Ollie had stopped and announced their arrival to his house.

'Your house is beautiful.' She whispered taking in its beauty.

His house was not the largest, about the same size as her foster parents' home. She never could bear to call it her own, her home was with her parents when she was young. But Ollie's house was beautiful, the house was surrounded by green shrubs and a small lake sat to the side of his home.

'Thanks.' He replied. 'It's not much, but it's my house and I am proud of it.'

Lily felt a growing discomfort as she approached the house. She had no problem with the wizarding community and she was certainly not afraid of them, but it was a discomfort she felt because she knew all too well that just because she felt no problems towards wizards did not mean that they liked her. She was always sad about that fact growing up, she thought that she'd never be able to befriend a wizard because they didn't like muggles. Ollie had certainly disproved this point, but she knew that there would be many a wizard ready to hurt her, if she approached them with the knowledge of what they were.

'I can see that you're uncomfortable with meeting more wizards and I think I can understand you a little.' He suddenly said, interrupting her from her thoughts. 'You're about to enter a house full of people who you assume probably won't like you. But I assure you they are nice, they are fine and they will most certainly not hurt you, especially as I will be there to stop them.'

'Don't cause any hassle over me. Please. I really am not worth it.' Lily said quickly and truthfully.

'You are worth it, because you and I are one of a kind, we are those who want to close the void between wizards and muggles.'

'If you do, you might want to stop calling them muggles. That's something that many of them dislike. If you changed the word muggle, because, to them, it sounds like something horrible.'

'Why do you say "them"?'

'To separate the ones who are prejudiced to me, who is unprejudiced.' She explained, she knew she'd have to repeat herself in a few minutes, but talking was stalling something she didn't want to do. She liked Ollie and knew she could be friends with him, but she knew that walking into a house with many of people like him would discomfort her.

'Don't be afraid of them.' He said gently. 'They can't hurt you. Or they can. But I won't let them.'

'I am not afraid of them.' He looked at her in disbelief, she carried on. 'All they can do is kill me and before you stopped me, I was going to do that myself. Pain doesn't bother me either. It's something I've learnt to control, I have a rather high pain threshold. I just don't like being hated for being something that I cannot control.'

'Ok.' He replied.

She thought about what she was going to do and decided that it wouldn't matter what they thought. Either they hated her and killed her, she really couldn't care less. Or they liked her and she carried on with her original plan to run away.

Life was full of simple decisions.


End file.
